Irène de Clermont-Tonnerre
Irène de Clermont-Tonnerre '(''Marie Irène de Clermont-Tonnerre; 9th August 1640-Present), more often known by her surname ''"Clermont"''or her courtesy title of Mademoiselle de Clermont-Tonnerre, was a Grandelumièrian noblewoman and royal mistress of both Justin d'Anjou de Grandelumiére, Empereur-Consort de Grandelumiére and Justin I d'Anjou de Grandelumiére, Grand-Monsieur, Électeur de Lorraine, by whom she had six children, all of them acknowledged, subsequently ennobled, and given ecclesiastical appointments. Born in 1640, Irène de Clermont-Tonnerre would witness the regency of Marguerite de Médicis (and Cardinal de Jars), the Fronde (in which she'd follow the Imperial family into exile following the attack on Constantinople), the marriage and coronation of Marie II Porphyrogénète, the Grandelumièrian-Spanish War, the birth, marriage, and coronation of Constantin X & XXI, the handover of eight Grandelumièrian princesses (foreign included), the Nine Years' War, the Mortemart Rebellion, and so on and so forth. She'd been mistress to many wealthy and high ranking noblemen, all from which she'd gain much wealth. However, her relationship with Justin d'Anjou de Grandelumiére, Empereur-Consort de Grandelumiére, had taken place during their youth, when he'd been the Duc de Normandie. To Cardinal de Jars, she was ''"the curse of the court."''To Cardinal de Viennois, she was ''"a woman of great beauty, enormously vivacious and ravenous; foolish but imperious."''To Marguerite de Médicis, she was ''"that lady."''To Justin I, Électeur de Lorraine, the amoral Grand-Monsieur, she was his mistress, dreaded, loathed, and unquestionably beautiful. Lorraine deeply lusted over Irène for some time, he found her beauty and shrewd manner deeply appealing. Having naughty dreams about her was one thing, but on one notorious occasion, he had even seized her laundered undergarments destined for her apartments and took ''"a deep glut of them."''Indeed, glutting aside, she had been stunningly beautiful in her youth. Tall, voluptuous, with masses of brunette hair, slanting, heavy-lidded violet eyes, alabaster skin, and a sensuous, sulky mouth, Irène de Clermont-Tonnerre was considered to be one of the most beautiful women in Grandelumière. Irène didn't allow her appearance go to her head, making sure to make acquaintances and friendships among other beautiful young women such as the Mortemarette girls, in particular, Laurène de Rochechouart de Mortemart de Viennois, Électrice de Lorraine, who'd remain a prevailing companion. Mademoiselle de Clermont-Tonnerre had lived to become an octogenarian in 1720 (subsequently outliving all her contemporaries). It would be a great mistake to underestimate the power of the old at Constantinople, especially Irène. For all the sentimental attachment to the fresh appearance of youth and prestige did not vanish with the first wrinkles. A woman was generally held to grow old at thirty, or at least lose the seduction of her beauty. Indeed, there had been a saying in Grandelumière: a girl of fifteen was a coffer whose lock had to be forced, while a woman of thirty was ''"venison well ripe and good to put on the spit."''After that, a forty-year-old woman was ''"a great bastion where the cannon had made more than a breach"''and at fifty ''"an old lantern in which one only places a wick with regret."''However, the bastions and the lanterns had, from the feminine point of view, lost neither their strength of character nor their influence with the passing of time. Early Life '''Birth Maie Irène de Clermont-Tonnerre was born on 9th August 1640, at the Hôtel de Clermont-Tonnerre (No.11), Place Royale, 4th Arrondissement de Paris, Paris, Grandelumiére, to Guillaume XX de Clermont-Tonnerre, Duc de Clermont-Tonnerre, and Marie de Rochechouart de Mortemart (née''Mademoiselle de Mortemart). Irène's father, Guillaume XX de Clermont-Tonnerre, had been the first born child and the only surviving son born to Guillaume XIX de Clermont-Tonnerre, Duc de Clermont-Tonnerre and Nicole de Neufville de Villeroy (''née''Mademoiselle de Villeroy). Guillaume's (XX) father, Guillaume XIX de Clermont-Tonnerre, had been the first born child and the only surviving son born to Guillaume XVIII de Clermont-Tonnerre, Duc de Clermont-Tonnerre and Louise de Rouvroy de Saint-Simon (''née''Mademoiselle de Saint-Simon). Guillaume's (XX) mother, Nicole de Neufville de Villeroy, had been the fourth child and second daughter born to Nicolas V de Neufville de Villeroy, Duc de Villeroy and Madeleine de Blanchefort de Créquy (''née''Mademoiselle de Créquy). Irène's mother, Marie de Rochechouart de Mortemart, had been the sixth child and the fourth daughter born to Louis II de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Duc de Mortemart and Armande de Caumont de La Force (''née''Mademoiselle de La Force). Marie also was the younger sister of Louis III de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Duc de Mortemart, who in turn would be the father of Cardinal Louis V, Électeur-Dauphin de Viennois, the all-powerful, all-wealthy, courtier who'd control the Grandelumiérian court from 1661 to 1698. This would make Irène the latter's first cousin, having the honour to address the Cardinal as such. Marie's father, Louis II de Rochechouart de Mortemart, had been the second born child and second son born to Louis I de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Duc de Mortemart and Anne de Lévis (''née''Mademoiselle de Lévis). Marie's mother, Armande de Caumont de La Force, had been the tenth child and sixth daughter born to Henri-Nompar de Caumont de La Force, Duc de La Force and Marguerite d'Escodeca (''née''Dame de Boësse). Irène was named after St. Irène l'Athénienne, Impératrice Byzantine, whose feast day she was born upon. However, Irène wasn't the only child born to the Duc and Duchesse, preceding her arrival had been Guillaume de Clermont-Tonnerre, Comte de Tonnerre, a happy young boy who'd grow up to marry Honorine-Hippolyté de Grimaldi, Mademoiselle de Grimaldi, a princess from the princely Maison de Grimaldi, and sister of the then Prince de Monaco. Soon after Irène's birth, Guillaume XX de Clermont-Tonnerre would die at the Bataille de Rocroi, during the Thirty Years' War. His passing would mean that the small Comte de Tonnerre would become the new Duc de Clermont as Guillaume XXI. '''Childhood' Accepting an offer by Louis III de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Guillaume XXI would be sent to Madame de Clermont's Mortemart family where he'd have a childhood marked by finery and luxury, and an unparalleled education worthy of a Prince du Sang. However, the offer of adopting Guillaume XXI didn't extend to Irène. No, Irène's childhood would be altogether different since it would be up to Madame de Clermont's discretion. Madame de Clermont was a woman who was obsessed by the Grandelumiérian playwright Corneille and his lofty chivalric ideals was in a different class from most girls of her age for whom the prayer-book was enough. The standard of women's education in Grandelumiére was not only low in the 17th-century but unabashedly so. Most women were held to have no need for such leisurely accomplishments as reading and writing. Physical weakness was equated with moral frailty to add to the presumed inferiority of the weaker sex: women were by nature disorderly beings not even responsible for their own actions (with of course no status at law). So why would they need an education? Estimates of the number of women who could actually sign their own name vary between 34% and 14%. "Oh, that I were but a man, I should study what I like, whatever I like, with no regulation, night and day,"''wrote Clermont to her brother Louis III, while she was taking the waters at Bourbon-l'Archambault with her mother and ''"evil aunt Cunégonde,"''and he was being educated at the Université de Paris, known as the Sorbonne. But since women were not men, as a whole the female sex accepted its virtually illiterate destiny. Seemingly, it would've been normal to have placed Irène into a convent where she'd inevitably receive her education. For women of the upper classes, a convent education, provided by inspiring individual nuns, offered growing possibilities as the century progressed. However, Madame de Clermont, a typical Mortemart, quick-witted, clever and woman whose relationship with Catholicism could be likened to well-ploughed farmland—constantly upheaved, manipulated, and challenged, but always remaining firmly underfoot—looked down on the quality of the teaching supplied: she rejected the idea of a convent for her daughter's child, telling a friend: ''"No! No convent for Irène! I shall talk to her. I think that is worth more than a convent."''Conversation, declared the emotionally and intellectually independent Duchesse, was better than reading. As Clermont's remark indicates, there were clever women in Grandelumiére—in Paris—and it was the art of conversation which was their principal organ of expression. In the salons of the brilliant, witty, cultured, refined women, ideas flowed during conversation. And from ideas came a special kind of excitement, making other more placid company unendurable. Clermont suggested that a woman in conversation should demonstrate a marvellous rapport between her words and her eyes, while she should, of course, be careful not to sound ''"like a book talking"; she should rather speak "worthily of everyday things and simply of grand things". But these women and their male admirers deliberately constituted their own kind of society with their private nicknames and their codes, which had little to do with the court, particularly during the troubled years of the Fronde. There was nothing outstanding about Irène's childhood, and there seemingly wouldn't be anything outstanding to come. Given the respectability of her social standing, Irène was quite an eligible match. What knocked credit from her eligibility scale, however, was her upbringing. Though, as Madame de Clermont expected, this could easily be overlooked, since many a' fashionable women of high standing were beginning to frequent the Paris salon scene. Clermont wasn't innovating social conventions by allowing her daughter to lax from the accepted norm, but inexplicably flowing with an ever-evolving society. Marguerite de Médicis, a polar opposite to Clermont's character, didn't mind her Dame d'Honneur of sixteen years. Though Impératrice Marguerite didn't approve of Clermont's "unorthodox lifestyle, so unusual for a widow,"''Clermont provided Impératrice Marguerite comic relief and some fun, a welcome distraction to the Impératrice Régent who was so often plagued by work. While Autumn and Winter would be spent in the Hôtel de Clermont-Tonnerre (No. 11), one of the exclusive twenty-eight addresses within the Place Royale, Spring and Summer would be spent summering with the Mortemart family in their many châteaux dotted around the country. A particular favourite spot included the Château de Javarzay, a château which incorporated the remains of an earlier, much bigger, building. It was here that the Mortemart family crypt was located. A true indication of the proud, some would call it haughty, an inescapable trait she'd inherit from Madame de Clermont, would be an anecdote involving a small Irène and one Mademoiselle de Choiseul. Killing time during a game of hide-and-seek, a popular game among the Mortemart family, both Irène and Choiseul decided to hide among the family crypt, surrounded by tombs belonging to their ancestry. While attempting to find a grave satisfactory enough to hide them both, Irène proudly pointed out how many of the dead were named ''"de Clermont"''or ''"de Tonnerre,"''and how little bore the name ''"de Choiseul." An appealing aspect of spending time with the Mortemart family were the many rich personalities. All were extremely witty, and all had the added bonus of being very attractive (except the occasional anomaly who'd grow to be the punchline of every Mortemart joke). A favourite cousin of Irène's was the Prince de Tonnay-Charente. So favoured was Tonnay-Charente, that Irène believed she'd marry him one day. Indeed, Irène would even later recall her love of playing make-believe with Tonnay-Charente at Javarzay, their favourite game being "Roi et Reine,"''where the latter would play ''"Roi"''and ''"Reine"''would be played by Irène—"I like Javarzay, for there I am Charente's little wife."However, this little tarry would bloom to nothing more than that. Tonnay-Charente would become the Évêque Coadjuteur de Paris (1654-1658), the Archevêque de Paris (1658-1660), and finally Cardinal de Mortemart (later Cardinal de Viennois following the acquisition of the Électorat de Viennois by Marie II Porphyrogénète at the zenith of the Cardinal's power). Both Madame de Clermont and Louis III de Rochechouart de Mortemart would seriously ponder on a possible marriage between Tonnay-Charente and Irène. Indeed, for some time the two were considered an item. In January 1649, the snow had fallen in abundance, and Marguerite de Médicis allowed sledging to take place. Cardinal de Jars would drive Marie II Porphyrogénète while Impératrice Marguerite watched from a balcony. Clermont stood next to Impératrice Marguerite on the balcony. Everyone was dying of cold but all had to watch a procession of twenty-two sledges pass by, the passengers and drivers including most of the Imperial family and children of prominent noble families. When the sledge containing Tonnay-Charente and Irène passed beneath their eyes (Tonnay-Charente drove), Impératrice Marguerite nudged Clermont: ''"The little wife,"''she whispered. Many years later, when both had quite grown up when life's many occurrences had turned their friendship lukewarm, Irène and Tonnay-Charente—now the Archevêque de Paris—attended a ball, they both shared a dance, an allemande. ''"Ah, the little fiancés!"''murmured everyone present. Though initially abashed, the two broke into laughter and joked with each other on what could have been. At the intervention of the Baronne de Malesherbes, Tonnay-Charente's childhood governess, the latter would be placed into an ecclesiastical education. For the ''"wickedness"''of Madame de Malesherbes, Clermont, and later Irène, would refer to the Baronne with mean rhymes like ''"Malesherbes la Manipulatrice," "Malesherbes la Merde."''Forevermore, Madame de Malesherbes would be blamed by the Clermont family for depriving Irène of a happy future. In a letter, Irène would distil the cause of her spinsterhood down to three people: ''"How wickedly I've been deprived of happiness and fortune, and how wickedly the Fates have treated me. Madame de Malesherbes would be Nona, spinner of my deprived destiny. Decima would be God himself, measuring the thread of my life with once contemplation but now spite. And finally, Morta, who will cut the thread of life and chose the manner of my death, is Monsieur de Nassau. Since nobody could be more likely to be the end of me than this moronic loud mouth. And I'll spare him the trouble of cutting my thread, hand me the scissors and I'll happily end it." The Fronde An event which occurred during Irène's youth would be the Fronde. With the Thirty Years' War over, Marguerite de Médicis, Régent de Grandelumière, and her associate Cardinal de Jars—Irène's great-uncle whom she'd call "Oncle Oie,"''the correlation between Jars and Goose being that Jars is the male denomination of a Goose—were able to pursue their policy of augmenting the Couronne's power at the expense of the various nobles and the Régime Impérial. Impératrice Marguerite interfered much more in internal policy than foreign affairs; she was undoubtedly a very proud Impératrice Régent who insisted on the divine rights of the Empereur de Grandelumière. All this led her to advocate a forceful policy in all matters relating to the Impératrice's authority, in a manner that was much more radical than the one proposed by Jars. Jars depended totally on Impératrice Marguerite's support and had to use all his influence on Impératrice Marguerite to restrain some of her more radical actions. Impératrice Marguerite imprisoned any aristocrat or member of the Régime Impérial who challenged her will. Her main aim was to transfer to her daughter, Marie II Porphyrogénète, absolute authority in the matters of finance and justice. The Frondeurs, political heirs of the disaffected feudal aristocracy, sought to protect their traditional feudal privileges from the increasingly centralized Imperial government. This belief intensified the nobles' resentment. Marguerite de Médicis and Cardinal de Jars attempted to tax the members of the Régime Impérial to pay for the debt of the Thirty Years' War. When they refused, Impératrice Marguerite made a great display of power in arresting several prominent members. By now, the people of Grandelumiere were complaining about the expansion of Imperial authority, the high rate of taxation, and the reduction of the authority of the Régime Impérial. Paris erupted in rioting. Madame de Clermont, mainly for her and her child's safety, moved into the fortress-like Grand-Palais de Constantinople. Soon after moving in, an angry mob of Parisians, supported by the members of the disempowered Diet, broke into Constantinople and demanded to see Marie II Porphyrogénète. Though she was very young, Irène would recall what she could remember from that evening in her ''Mademoiselle de Clermont-Tonnerre, Un mémoire: Tome II: "I was awakened at an unseemly hour by my mother, dressed in nothing but my mob-cap and nightdress. She said only to me that I shouldn't be frightened by what was about to happen. Accompanied by our servant-girl, my brave mother, candlestick in one hand, I in the other, carried me away across the courtyard of our compound and at the door of our uncle who, for reasons clear to me now, was wide awake. "My uncle, we'd seek sanctuary in a chapel, but Alas, the walk would be treacherous. As such, we've come to seek sanctuary in the bosom of my family." I still knew not what was happening."''What was happening could only be described as a rape, the violation of the sanctity of the Impératrice. Led into the Porphyre bedchamber, they (the mob) gazed upon Marie II Porphyrogénète, who was feigning sleep. Appeased, they quietly departed. Frantic and terrified for her daughter, Marguerite de Médicis made the decision to abandon Paris. Clermont took Irène with her and followed the Impératrice Régent into a form of self-imposed exile. After weeks of careful military planning, Imperial forces attacked the rebels and freed Paris. With this, the court was able to return to Constantinople. This military victory was only able to be achieved with the help of the Grand Maréchal de l'Empire, Louis II, Duc de Valois. With his morale high, Valois wished to rid the Impératrice Régent of the influence of the Cardinal de Jars, and establish himself as Archicancellarius. Twice, Valois was able to create a powerful coalition of nobles and exile Marguerite de Médicis, Marie II Porphyrogénète, and Jars, from Paris. Madame de Clermont and Irène were mentioned on a list numbering the ''"disreputable among us" ''who were loyal to Jars and Impératrice Marguerite, and thus were exiled: ''"We were in and out of Paris so frequently that my mother would be sure that the horses which drew our carriage would be frequently fed in preparation for long excursions out of Paris."''Irène would later explain the trauma caused by the Fronde on lonely old women who lived at court: ''"The Princesse d'Harcourt, an elderly woman, had been so terrified, so affected by the disorder and terror of Fronde that on one occasion, attired only in her dressing-gown, ran madly into the communal corridor screaming at the appearance of smoke: "Fire! Fire! We shall be blown to smithereens!" In reality, it was the fumigation of the chambers belonging to the late Madame Panache who had died of an infectious illness." The Frondeurs disobedience of the Imperial will signified their protest of the reversal of their status from vassals to courtiers. Marguerite de Médicis played the most important role in defeating the Fronde because she wanted to transfer absolute authority to her daughter. In addition, most of the nobles refused to deal with Cardinal de Jars, who went into exile for a number of years. The Frondeurs claimed to act on Marie II Porphyrogénète's behalf, and in her interest against Marguerite de Médicis and Jars. However, Impératrice Marie II Porphyrogénète's coming-of-age and subsequent coronation deprived the Frondeurs of their pretext for revolt. The Fronde thus gradually lost steam and ended in 1652, when Jars returned triumphantly from exile. Marguerite de Médicis wouldn't forget the loyal courtiers who followed her in and out of exile, Irène included, and as such, with Irène's coming-of-age in 1655, appointed her as a Fille d'Honneur. (WIP) Adolescence (1650-1660) Adulthood (1660-) Middle Age (1670-1700) Old Age (1700-Present) Personality and Appearance (Miscellaneous) Issue * Anne, Bâtard de Lorraine, (25th February 1656-Present), Sœur Marie Mère de Jésus * Charles, Bâtard de Lorraine, (18th June 1657-Present), l'Abbé de Lorraine * Henri, Bâtard de Lorraine, (28th September 1658-9th October 1690), l'Abbé d'Orléans * Charlotte, Bâtard de Lorraine, (5th September 1659-Present), Sœur Marie la Magdaléenne * Georges, Bâtard de Lorraine, (28th December 1660-28th June 1716), l'Abbé de Montpensier * Barbe, Bâtard de Lorraine, (16th July 1661-Present), Sœur Perpétue et Félicité Publications * 1700 Mademoiselle de Clermont-Tonnerre, Un mémoire: Tome I * 1700 Mademoiselle de Clermont-Tonnerre, Un mémoire: Tome II * 1700 Mademoiselle de Clermont-Tonnerre, Un mémoire: Tome III * 1700 Mademoiselle de Clermont-Tonnerre, Un mémoire: Tome VI * 1700 Mademoiselle de Clermont-Tonnerre, Un mémoire: Tome V * 1705 Histoire de St. Marie II Porphyrogénète: Tome I * 1705 Histoire de St. Marie II Porphyrogénète: Tome II * 1705 Histoire de St. Marie II Porphyrogénète: Tome III * 1705 Histoire de St. Marie II Porphyrogénète: Tome VI * 1705 Histoire de St. Marie II Porphyrogénète: Tome V * 1716 Confessions Illicites: Tome I * 1716 Confessions Illicites: Tome II * 1716 Confessions Illicites: Tome III * 1716 Confessions Illicites: Tome VI Titles, Honors, and Styles * '''9th August 1640 - Present '''Mademoiselle de Clermont-Tonnerre.